139th Preakness Stakes

Exactly two weekends ago, I had a pleasure of taking part in Preakness craziness for the second time in my life. For those of you who don't know, it is a a horse race held at Pimlico Race course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is also a second leg of the US Triple Crown, following the Kentucky Derby (Louisville, Kentucky) and followed by the Belmont Stakes (Elmont, New York). Now, you're probably wondering why a girl would be excited about such events? Well, it's certainly not because I like to spend my money on bets. Although it was nice to experience something new for a change, I come for fun. And by that I mean a day full of infield concerts, people, sun, uhm, booze.... Yes, it's that simple to make me happy ;)

For this year, me and two of my friends headed to Baltimore for a two day event. Friday May 16th was a Black-Eyed Susan Day. We started it off watching a few horse races, then pre-gamed a little prior to entering the infield that served as a venue for concerts + drinking massacre. I was mostly elated to see The Fray on stage. And they didn't disappoint. To end the night we danced to Counting Crows, another great band. Although I expected a little different performance from the last group, it was still great to be there.

Here are pics from Day 1:

 Race course in the background. Nope, we didn't decide to wear fancy dresses and big kick ass hats like we should have... mostly because right afterwards we had to be somewhere else and if you keep reading, you'll know exactly why it was a good decision.

 The Fray

After partying it up in the infield. It actually looks like I was a jockey riding a horse ha ha

Day 2 it was the actual Preakness Day. The most important race of the day did not take place until after 6pm. Therefore, we had the whole day to just have fun and enjoy some music. The first one up was NAS and we made it just in time...

Here's my biker babe outfit of the day

Right after the first concert, we headed over to see Switchfoot. Not a lot of my friends recognize this band from San Diego until they here some of theirs songs. It was a really cool concert but they did so many covers, I was hoping to hear more of their own repertoire. Meant to live definitely made my day! It was crazy.

The headliner of the day was a worldwide success - one and only - Lorde. I have to admit that I didn't like hear in the beginning, her song Royals was doing the same thing to me what a red fabric does to the bull. It was annoying and I was so sick of it. After seeing her perform at Grammy's, though, I gradually started to appreciate her more. I mean, she has a unique voice, great lyrics, an interesting sense of style when up on stage, and for God's sake she's only 17!

 obsessed with these sunglasses

trying to be cool, but really, I hated it ha ha

Here's a pic of a famous MUG CLUB > MUG and never ending refills

It was a great weekend. Good music, beautiful weather, the best company = everything I love. As for the horse race of the day, to everybody's excitement, the second leg of the US Triple Crown was won by California Chrome. The very same horse that won in Kentucky Derby. If it will make it in Belmont Stakes on June 7th, he will be a big winner of all three stakes since 1978! Fingers crossed!

Have a great sun filled weekend babes!

What winning really means to you?

Reality bites, 1994

I recently stumbled upon this one issue of Glamour and felt so inspired by it that had to go back to it twice. I know it's a magazine dedicated to women, but this one particular publication felt even more special to me ( I also posted on it recently HERE). It is very career oriented, encouraging women to follow their passions and don't get discouraged by their ideas and aspirations. For me personally, I feel it is needed and appreciated when I'm empowered and reminded to follow my dreams and that none of it is not important enough to pursue. Either it's just settling down and focusing on your family life or building up your career and conquering the world before you take care of others, you do whatever makes you happy. I'm still young and one would say (actually, everybody says so) that I still have a lot of time to figure it all out, but recently I found it especially difficult and confusing. I mean, how are you supposed to make a decision now (just because at 20 something you feel it's high time you figured it all out) and expect the same (satisfactory) results years from now, when you're older and things has changed. What it means to be successful to me? It means many different things at the moment, which I guess is connected to the stage I am right now. Still. very confusing. I mean, as soon as I feel I figured it out the world comes crashing down and rearrange everything. Then I find myself looking for answers and meaning of it all once again... I guess everything happens for a reason and I should just roll with it.

Anyhow... sorry for opening up, confusing and chaos. Or not. I needed to let it out. So there it is.

I hope you'll enjoy this column by Zosia Mamut. Her thoughts appear on Glamour pages every other month and I encourage you to read it. I also encourage you to watch Girls in which she stars in. It sure is something else.

Oh, and if you need music... this is what I feel like right now:

Alicia Keys - If I ain't got you

John Mayer - Edge of desire

Glamour June 2014, page 108.

R.I.P. Maya Angelou

biking & 'house hunting' in Florida

One of those I spent in Florida, me and my friend decided to go biking. It was about a 17-mile route, so we took our time and had plenty of stops to enjoy the views. If you know me and my dear camera, we are inseparable. Therefore, I took a lot of pictures (yes, while biking - it's called multitasking) of that little adventure and there sure was a lot to admire. We started our route in a beautiful city of Belleair in Pinellas County. Then, after climbing up two bridges, we slowly worked our way up to Clearwater Beach (more about it HERE). Then we were only one bridge away from coming back home to Belleair.

Anyways, less talking, more pictures:

our bike route

some random gate that in no way was going along with the style of the house

In Belleair we came across this mansion in progress. My friend only heard that some baseball player is building it. A little snooping around and we found out that the owner is a Phillies player Ryan Howard. Estimated cost: $ 23 million. More info HERE.

Sand Key Park

climbing up the bridge no. 2 that will take us from Belleair to Clearwater

Clearwater Beach

a perfect place to take a break and treat yourself to some lunch by the beach

Former Hulk Hogan's Belleair estate. Originally up for sale for 25$ million, sold 5 years later in 2011 for only $6.2 million.

It's the very same house portrayed in a VH1's reality show Hogan Knows Best.

 It features roof tiles imported from France, floors that are center-cut oak hand-carved in a basket-weave pattern, handmade leaded-glass windows, kitchen with custom copper sinks, hand-carved limestone and steel countertops, and a fireplace - one of seven in the house. Read more HERE.

It was a good day.